S&W 22 Victory

[dingode]

Got my S&W Victory yesterday and went out after work today to try it out. What I can say is IMHO Ruger had better step up their game if they want to stay competitive. I took my MKI and MKIII 22/45 LITE along to the range with the victory. I installed a Tandemkross victory trigger in the LITE and wanted to try it out also.

The S&W Victory shot great. Trigger has a bit of take up, but broke cleanly and had no grittiness. MY 22/35 has thousands of rounds and even with the new trigger doesn't feel near as good at the Victory. In fact I'll probably end up spending more $ and get a Volquartsen sear and hammer for the MKIII.

The S&W shot mini-mags CPRN, American Eagle 38Gr, and golden bullets flawlessly. Surprisingly it was most accurate with the GB's, and that accuracy was very impressive. The AE's were also pretty good accuracy wise, the MM's were the least accurate but still not bad.

The gun didn't like Federal automatch at all. Mutliple FTE's, maybe when they come out with an after market extractor it will fix that problem or maybe after a few hundred more rounds it'll get better. Federal Champions also had a few FTE's. Accuracy with both was fine though.

The fit and finish was above what I've seen from Ruger lately and the trigger was leaps and bounds above what Ruger is putting out. The take down couldn't be easier. I don't have a problem taking down and putting my MK's back together, but many do and this gun, being cheaper than Ruger, will be appealing to many shooters.

Over all I'm happy enough after one range session to invest in 4 more mags so I can use it for steel plate season in a month. No plans to get the Volq. barrel, it looks cool as hell, but the factory barrel is more accurate than I am.

[Stryker74]

^^^^ That.

I only put Rem Golden Bullets through mine so far - plan to try some of the nasty/dirty Thuderbolts soon.

Loving this gun. It is so much better than the Model 22A I have. S&W got it right with this one.